Does Your Blog Need to Be Brought Back From the Dead?

5 Top Signs Your Blog Needs Resuscitation & How to Fix Them

Does your blog display any of these five signs of lifelessness? If so, it’s possible that your blog is dead and needs to be resuscitated.

Don’t despair. Help is on the way. Determine where you have issues with your blog and follow the suggested fixes to bring your blog to life again.

No listings on search engines. This can be attributable to the fact that your blog is relatively new, that no one’s linking to your blog, your site’s been compromised, or similarly named sites or competitors rank higher. FIX: Do you have a list of keywords that you’re looking to rank for? If not, determine which keywords and phrases are most important for your business. Then create useful content around these keywords and link out to relevant sources, particularly blogs and third party media. Writing guest blog posts that allow you to link to your biography on your blog can also help build inbound links that support your search rankings. If it’s a case where your blog or website has been compromised, it’s critical to install the appropriate fixes. (Here’s more information on search optimization for blogs.)

No social media engagement. Have you been quiet on social media platforms? This is particularly noticeable if you’ve gone from being very active to no activity. If your social media followers haven’t heard from you, they may forget about you. Some of them can be rather fickle – out of sight out of mind. FIX: First examine what’s the cause for your sudden silence. Is it attributable to a change in jobs or work responsibilities? Alternatively, is there a personal life change that’s consuming your attention? If so, can you support a reduced presence so your social network knows that you’re still engaged, albeit on a more limited scale

No comments. If your blog was a hotbed of social media intercourse, has it dried up? Have your most vocal commenters stopped engaging on your blog? Have they moved their party elsewhere? FIX: Start by examining whether you’ve changed how you’re writing your blog posts or handling comments? If so, the lack of comments can be a sign your readers aren’t happy with this change. Also, has one of most prolific commenters has started a blog or begun writing for another media entity? If so, then he and his followers may be engaging on those platforms, not your blog. Ensure you’re encouraging the conversation on your blog. One effective way to start the dialog is to add a question at the end of your posts. Further, be prepared to respond to most comments that are more substantive than “Nice post.” It shows that you’re paying attention, welcome the engagement and will respond. Who wants to leave a comment that no one’s cares about? Lastly, use back channels to get your social media friends to engage on your blog to show activity. Of course, they’ll probably expect you to reciprocate.

No social media shares. If you normally have low numbers or don’t show counts, this isn’t an issue. But if your counts show you going from being the life of the party with lots of social sharing to nothing, this is a sign something’s wrong. Have you changed something about your blog? Has your content changed? Has your presentation changed? Has your publishing schedule changed? Have you omitted something that you had before such as intriguing photos or killer headlines? FIX: Once you’ve determined where you have issues, set a plan and take proactive steps to achieve it. In addition, it can be helpful to ask your social media tribe to help get the word out using back channels.

No posts. If the last time you posted was over a month ago and it was a short article you phoned in you have a major problem. Unlike other signs of problems, this one requires real introspection to determine whether your heart’s still into blogging. Is the reason associated with the fact that you’ve been sick, experienced a major family issue, or been overworked? Or have you lost interest in blogging, thinking: I’ll just take one day off and one day led to another until you can’t face your computer screen. Or have you run out of things to write about? Whatever the case, consider letting your readers know. Readers can be supportive. Why not write a post letting them know what’s happening. Remember you don’t have to share all of the gory details. FIX: A good way to start blogging regularly again is by developing an editorial calendar and practicing your writing habit. To this end, it can be useful to get some help from your blogging friends.

Regardless of which of these factors applies to your blog, what matters is that you want to keep it going and are willing to work to bring it back to life.

Do you have any suggestions about how to bring a blog back to life? Do you have any examples of how you transformed your blog? If so, please share it in the comment section below.